A Ministry of Mercy

She wore her life on her face – she looked old and ragged. A 65 year old woman came to POP’s Outreach Ministry looking for food and help with an electric bill. I eventually learned her daughter had killed her own baby. She started screaming at me, full of disappointment, rage, hurt and resentment, as if I were her daughter. There was nothing else to do but let her scream. After she calmed down, we talked and prayed, I gave her a book for comfort, some notes from Mother Teresa to read later, a hug, and helped her with food and a bill. She left, her posture a little bit straighter and her face a little softer. I never saw her again. And, I never forgot her.
Thatencounter was God’smercy, not mine. He worked through me so that she could heal a little.

Daily, the Caritas Building attracts many broken people looking for food, money, and other “earthly” necessities. But the thing for which they are
starving is God and His mercy! When people come for food or help with their family, there is often something deeper, something unhealed, something sorrowful that requires mercy and love.

The fullness of the Catholic Church, including the graces found in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, and even people like the ministers in the Caritas Building, are God’s tools here on Earth to bring His healing mercy and love. They are His voice, His hands, His arms, His mercy which Pope Francis said, is “the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to a hope of being loved forever despite our sins.”

In order to reflect the love, compassion and mercy found within the ministry,
Outreach will now be known as the Prince of Peace Mercy Ministry. And, our new facilities will be called the Mercy Center.

Our Holy Father has proclaimed a Jubilee Year of Mercy, commencing on December 8, 2015 and continuing through Nov. 20, 2016, in hopes “
that Catholics will be motivated to practice the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy in the world.” So, I invite you to join Pope Francis in the “Jubilee Year of Mercy” and join us in the Prince of Peace Mercy Ministry to practice the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. If you wish to serve Him, listen to God’s word, to His teachings and provide mercy to your brothers and sisters everywhere. You will become more like Jesus and grow forever closer to Him.